1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a screen controlling apparatus for controlling display of a button, such as an icon, on a display unit, such as a touch-sensitive panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
An office automation equipment, such as a duplicator, a facsimile machine and a printer, has a touch-sensitive operation controlling panel, such as a CRT and an LCD, and a user operates a user interface (UI) screen in the panel to accomplish operation.
On the UI screen, various of functions, detailed items of the respective functions, and guidance of the functions, items and operation are displayed in language of a certain country or region (in general, the country where the duplicator, etc. is installed, for example, Japanese language in Japan). The duplicator, etc. have language data for plural countries installed therein, and the language to be displayed can be switched according to user configuration.
Examples of a method for user configuration of display language include a method in which a “language switching” key is provided outside the touch-sensitive panel, and (1) the installed languages are displayed one by one upon pressing the “language switching” key, or (2) a list of the installed language is displayed upon pressing the “language switching” key, and a desired language is selected from the list (as described, for example, in JP-A-2000-119510).
The method (1) involves the following problem. The number of pressing the key until the desired language is displayed is increased upon increasing the number of the installed languages. For example, in a case where 11 languages are installed, the key is necessarily pressed 10 times in the worst case, and unnecessary languages are displayed 10 times. Furthermore, in a case where caution and restriction matters must be displayed upon switching language, for example, configuration and display of a duplicator, etc. must be initialized after language is changed, there is no means for notifying the matter.
Even in a case where a list of installed language is displayed in the current language, a user suffers significant inconvenience because the user is intended to switch the current language to another language. Specifically, when the user intend to switch a display screen in Japanese language to English language and [English] is displayed in Japanese language, there is such a problem that a person who cannot read Japanese language cannot press the “English” button in Japanese language.
Furthermore, although the restriction matters can be displayed in the list screen, the restriction matters and guidance are displayed in the former language even after selecting a new language, and thus the user suffers inconvenience. For example, a “Close” button in Japanese language is still displayed with representation “Close” in Japanese even after selecting English language as a new language.
Moreover, JP-A-2000-305690 intends to solve the problem associated with the method (2) by displaying the language list in a language previously set, for example, in English, which is a language commonly intelligible for people of many countries, but it is difficult to be understood by a person who cannot read English language. It is still difficult for a person who cannot read English to understand and operate the display.